few days. Gil remembered when Susan was in labor, he didn’t sleep at all. Stevens’s tiredness might work in their favor. It would be harder for him to mask his reactions.

Joe was finishing up, so Gil grabbed some blank paper and a pen, put the paper in the manila file folder with Stevens’s name written on it, and went to the interview room. He knocked before he entered, to give Joe the ability to say “Come in,” thus cementing his authority. Joe would need all the help he could get in that department since he was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans.

Gil went in, but instead of sitting down he kept standing and said, “Alex, do you know why you are here today?”

“Umm . . .” Stevens said, “I guess to talk about the guy you arrested?”

What Gil said next was basically the same introductory statement he’d made to Rudy Rodriguez the day before. “It’s recently come to our attention that we have been misled regarding some things about the day Brianna disappeared. I can guarantee you, Alex, that our investigation will uncover the truth. In light of that, if you know anything about it, you should tell me now.”

Stevens went suddenly pale. Which made Gil glad. It meant this interview might be easy.

Gil picked up his metal chair and positioned it exactly four feet in front of Stevens. Joe, who was watching Gil intently, did the same, putting his chair next to Gil. There was no table in the room and therefore no intervening furniture to make it easier for Stevens to feel protected. That was the point.

Gil sat down purposefully and leaned forward in his chair, saying, “Alex, I know you lied to us.”

“I only did it to protect my family,” Stevens said defensively.

“Sure,” Joe said, jumping in smoothly for a change. “I get that. I would have done the same thing.”

“It’s not like I did anything wrong,” Stevens said. “I only did what I had to.”

“I totally get that,” Joe said, almost in a murmur.

“Besides, that guy really needs to be locked up,” Stevens said.

“I completely agree,” Joe said.

“I mean,” said Stevens. “You guys said he was crazy.”

Alex Stevens was admitting not to being in Socorro when Brianna disappeared but to lying about David Geisler. Gil decided to jump in. There was a series of questions that had to be asked now, and Joe might not be able to pull them off.

“He is,” Gil said, continuing to agree with Stevens. “He’s in the hospital right now being evaluated. One thing you can help us with is just telling us what you know about David Geisler.”

“Who?” Stevens asked. Gil felt Joe take in a short breath. This was why Gil had jumped in. Why Joe couldn’t do this part of the interview. His anger might get the best of him, especially when faced with a subject who didn’t even know the name of the man he almost sent to prison.

“David Geisler is the man you saw in here yesterday,” Gil said with a knowing smile. He was almost relieved to be doing this interrogation. It was so clean. So simple. It brought him back to what he loved about the process—the control, the rules, and the self-discipline. Maybe it would banish from his mind the role he had played yesterday with Rodriguez.

“Oh,” Stevens said. “The crazy guy.”

Gil smiled. “Right. So how well do you know him?”

“I’ve never met him, just seen him walking around a few times,” Stevens said matter-of-factly, not even showing the least bit of remorse for what he had done.

“And you’d never seen him with Brianna?” Gil asked gently.

“No,” Stevens said, “but when I saw him in here yesterday, I knew he was crazy and that he might hurt other kids, so I did what was right.”

“What makes you think he’s hurt any kids?” Gil asked, trying to sound relaxed.

“Oh, I just assumed,” Stevens said. “I mean, the guy is seriously off. He needs to be locked up.”

Gil could have asked so many other questions, such as why Stevens would derail the investigation so completely or who he was trying to protect by identifying an innocent man. To ask those questions, though, Gil would have to pull out evidence of Stevens’s other lie. He wasn’t ready to do that. Yet.

The woman lay on the pavement of the interstate like a wrung-out rag. The force of the impact had twisted her torso and her lower body in opposite directions. The car that had crashed into her